To All CD ADMINS's

[savage]

Hi, is there any way we can cut down on the number of users posting spam for movies and such. In all my years on the forums I have never seen so many spammers until now.

Feel free to close this if u want I just wanted to put this out there.

Cant wait to see what this years FRC game will bring us. I did not have a chance to volunteer this past year.

Ben White

[Hallry]

Originally Posted by savage

Hi, is there any way we can cut down on the number of users posting spam for movies and such.

It's easier said than done.

[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by savage

Hi, is there any way we can cut down on the number of users posting spam for movies and such. In all my years on the forums I have never seen so many spammers until now.

Feel free to close this if u want I just wanted to put this out there.

Cant wait to see what this years FRC game will bring us. I did not have a chance to volunteer this past year.

Ben White

Why is this the case? I can't figure out why someone goes through the trouble of posting something that is going to cause a slight nuisance, be largely ignored, and then fairly quickly removed.

[colin340]

i sorta enjoy seeing the spammers waste they time and try to come up with new subject lines. Also there is always the hunt to be the first to report and that fun!

[Domenic Rodriguez]

Question: if a new spammer posts multiple threads and one of the threads has already been reported, is it worth it to report the other threads as well? Just thinking that the mods probably don't need several reports about the same spammer...

[Tom Line]

1. Why they do it.

Search results. Search engines score search results. If you can place multiple links to your site on a well-scored site like Chief Delphi, that raises the score of your own website. That's why a lot of these posts are just dozens of links to the same site. Repeat this thousands or tens of thousands of times and you can boost your site and get the hits you want. Usually to download malware of some sort.

2. Should we report it?

Yes. Every time. Because there is a que of reported items that let mods click through quickly and remove each one. Otherwise they have to guess or stumble across the posts themselves.

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

1. Why they do it.
Search results. Search engines score search results. If you can place multiple links to your site on a well-scored site like Chief Delphi, that raises the score of your own website. That's why a lot of these posts are just dozens of links to the same site. Repeat this thousands or tens of thousands of times and you can boost your site and get the hits you want. Usually to download malware of some sort.

Fortunately this isn't the case anymore. In fact, Google punishes sites that are linked to like this now.

[cbale2000]

IMO, the simple thing to do would be to just require moderator approval of the first 3-5 posts of any new member like many other forums do. It would mean people wouldn't have to report spambots anymore and their posts would never show up to the general public.

[joelg236]

9 / 25 are spam. Are moderators just too busy right now (I'm sure there'd be more volunteers if that's the case)? I've never seen Delphi like this before. I'm curious what has changed (if something has).

I know that Brandon has enabled some spam blocking, but clearly it isn't working well enough for a clean experience.

[Anupam Goli]

The last two nights were completely awful in terms of spam posts. I'm used to seeing a bit more in the offseason, since during the season there are so many new topics made it crowds out the spam users posting, but the screenshot joel posted just shows how ridiculous the spam attack last night was. I feel like the spammers are starting to hit harder. It really is time for an upgrade to the spam prevention system.

[yash101]

This site has a database of spammers. They also have some plugins, that can guard against spam! It is useful to block users from signing up, preventing spam users, in the first place!
http://stopforumspam.com/contributions

[Brandon_L]

Originally Posted by colin340

i sorta enjoy seeing the spammers waste they time and try to come up with new subject lines. Also there is always the hunt to be the first to report and that fun!

Indeed, I absolutely love reporting it. I like to get creative with it. ASCII art, memes, ect. Usually Doge 'Wow much spam so report wow'.

Man, I have to much time on my hands.

[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by cbale2000

IMO, the simple thing to do would be to just require moderator approval of the first 3-5 posts of any new member like many other forums do. It would mean people wouldn't have to report spambots anymore and their posts would never show up to the general public.

I really dislike this idea. If a person new to FIRST has a question this is the easiest place to go to get it answered quickly and having to await approval for a post to go up creates a barrier to entry (whether it be 30 seconds that it takes for approval or 2 hours) If I see "Your post is awaiting approval from an administrator" after I make an account on that site I get pretty annoyed.

[joelg236]

Originally Posted by ICanCountTo19

I really dislike this idea. If a person new to FIRST has a question this is the easiest place to go to get it answered quickly and having to await approval for a post to go up creates a barrier to entry (whether it be 30 seconds that it takes for approval or 2 hours) If I see "Your post is awaiting approval from an administrator" after I make an account on that site I get pretty annoyed.

Exactly. Although it technically would solve the problem, it certainly creates a lot of harm. Our rookies often get turned off by the "wait 24 hours" rule anyways. Most of them make an account and never check it again because they completely forget after posting and waiting.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by joelg236

9 / 25 are spam. Are moderators just too busy right now (I'm sure there'd be more volunteers if that's the case)? I've never seen Delphi like this before. I'm curious what has changed (if something has).

I know that Brandon has enabled some spam blocking, but clearly it isn't working well enough for a clean experience.

We're two revs behind on vBulletin. I'm no webmaster but I frequent some other vBulletin based sites with zero spam and I'm pretty sure they're version 4/5.